Service Sunday January 5, 2025
Worship Leader: Rev. Max Ward, B.A., M. Div.
Music Director: Melissa Stephens, B. Mus., B. Ed., A. Mus.
(For a Printer Friendly PDF version click this link)
The Twelfth Day of Christmas! Epiphany Tomorrow!
All are Welcome!
Watch a video recording of the whole service below using YouTube.
The Gathering
Welcome and Announcements.
Focusing Moment.
LIGHTING THE CHRIST CANDLE:
One: Light of the world be our guide. Reveal to us the radiant glory of hope and peace in our world too often overshadowed by injustice. Illumine the way of kindness, compassion and harmony. Let it begin with each one of us. We pray in the name of the glorious Christ. Amen
Written by Laura J. Turnbull, Penticton, B.C.
Acknowledgement of Land
At this time, let us acknowledge that we are worshipping on the ancestral land of the Anishinaabe people. We live, work, play and pray on the Treaty lands. May we live in harmony and respect with all those who share the earth with us and be thankful to God as we move into a peaceful and healthy future together.
Written by Lori Van Santvoort-Jansekovich, Broadway U.C., Thunder Bay, Ont.
Gathering, Advent/Christmas/Epiphany 2021-2022, p.43. Used with permission.
THE APPROACH
HYMN: “What Child Is This” VU #74
1 What child is this, who laid to rest,
on Mary's lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet
while shepherds watch are keeping?
Refrain This, this is Christ the King,
whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
haste, haste to bring him laud,
the Babe, the Son of Mary!
2 Why lies he in such mean estate
where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear; for sinners here
the silent Word is pleading. Refrain
3 So bring him incense, gold, and myrrh;
come, one and all, to own him.
The King of Kings salvation brings;
let loving hearts enthrone him. Refrain
CALL TO WORSHIP:
One: Together, we follow our hearts and our dreams to this moment.
ALL: We listen and learn, love and pray.
One: Together, we follow our hearts and our dreams to this moment.
ALL: with the long days of travel, the gifts of strangers, the horror of power, the celebration of life.
One: Together, we follow our hearts and our dreams to this moment.
ALL: We listen and learn, love and pray.
One: Joining with the magi, together, we worship the babe, our hope.
Written by Emily Gordon, Leaside U.C., Toronto, Ont.
Gathering, Advent 2024, p.42. Used with permission.
HYMN: “'Twas in the Moon of Wintertime” VU #71
1 'Twas in the moon of wintertime,
when all the birds had fled,
that mighty Gitchi Manitou
sent angel choirs instead;
before their light the stars grew dim,
and wandering hunters heard the hymn:
Refrain Jesus your King is born,
Jesus is born,
in excelsis gloria.
2 Within a lodge of broken bark
the tender babe was found,
a ragged robe of rabbit skin
enwrapped his beauty round;
but as the hunter braves drew nigh,
the angel song rang loud and high: Refrain
3 The earliest moon of wintertime
is not so round and fair
as was the ring of glory on
the helpless infant there.
The chiefs from far before him knelt
with gifts of fox and beaver pelt. Refrain
4 O children of the forest free,
the angel song is true,
the holy child of earth and heaven
is born today for you.
Come, kneel before the radiant boy,
who brings you beauty, peace, and joy: Refrain
A NEW CREED: Spoken in Unison
We are not alone; we live in God’s world.
We believe in God: who has created and is creating,
who has come in Jesus, the Word made flesh,
to reconcile and make new, who works in us and others by the Spirit.
We trust in God.
We are called to be the church: to celebrate God’s presence,
to live with respect in Creation, to love and serve others,
to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus crucified and risen,
our judge and our hope. In life, in death, in life beyond death, God is with us. We are not alone. Thanks be to God.
MINISTRY OF MUSIC:
THE WORD
Scripture: Matthew 2:1-12
Leader: Hear and listen to what the Spirit is saying to the church.
ALL: Thanks be to God.
MESSAGE
“A Christmas & Epiphany Meditation by Bishop John Spong”
Listen to an audio recording of the message below or read it at the bottom of this page.
OUR RESPONSE
CANDLE LIGHTING LITURGY
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE and The Lord’s Prayer
(sung VU #960)
HYMN: “As with Gladness Men of Old” VU #81
1 As with gladness men of old
did the guiding star behold,
as with joy they hailed its light,
leading onward, beaming bright,
so, most gracious Lord, may we
evermore your splendour see.
2 As with joyful steps they sped,
to that lowly manger bed,
there to bend the knee before
Christ, whom heaven and earth adore;
so may we with eager pace
ever seek your throne of grace.
3 As they offered gifts most rare
at that manger crude and bare,
so may we with holy joy,
pure and free from sin's alloy,
all our costliest treasures bring,
Christ, to you, our heavenly King.
4 Holy Jesus, every day
keep us in the narrow way;
and, when earthly things are past,
bring our ransomed souls at last
where they need no star to guide,
where no clouds your glory hide.
5 In the heavenly country bright
none shall need created light;
you its light, its joy, its crown,
you its sun which goes not down;
there for ever may we sing
hallelujah to our King.
AFFIRMING MOMENT:
PRESENTATION OF OUR OFFERINGS
OFFERTORY PRAYER:
Holy One, we give our gifts and talents, just as the wise ones brought you frankincense, myrrh, and gold, when you were on your mother’s knee. We bring you our earthly treasures to help illuminate your presence on this earth. Amen.
Written by Sarah Brownlee, Castlegar U.C., Castlegar, B.C.
Gathering, Advent 2024, page 43. Used with permission.
SUNG BLESSING: (VU #87 vs 1)
Refrain 'I am the light of the world!
You people come and follow me!'
If you follow and love you'll learn the mystery
of what you were meant to do and be.
1 When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and the shepherds have found
their way home,
the work of Christmas is begun: Refrain ©
Sending Forth:
One: Our Creator God has been with us throughout the service as symbolized by the light of this candle. As we extinguish the candle, the light goes with us. It goes with us as an energizing Spirit—The Spirit that fills us individually and collectively with ambition to lead our lives in harmony with our planet. It goes with us as Jesus, the teacher—the teacher, called Light of the World, who reminds us how to live in peace and harmony with all. It goes with us as the Creator God—who develops in us the willingness to work toward harmony in all Creation.
(The Christ candle is extinguished. A gesture may be offered indicating the light spreading out.)
Go into the world carrying the light of Christ.
ALL: Amen!
Written by Mary Grant, Forest Will U.C., Fredericton, N.B.
Gathering, Advent, 2024, p.43. Used with permission.
A Time of Fellowship
© Music Reproduced with permission under License number A-605748, Valid for: 26/10/2024 - 25/10/2025; One License - Copyright Cleared Music for Churches.
Sermon 5th January 2025
“A Christmas & Epiphany Meditation by Bishop John Spong”
Matthew 2:1-12
Gracious God, be with us today in this place, in the Scriptures and in our words.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts praise your Holy name. Amen.
The following is a response Bishop Spong wrote to a question about how we as Christians can worship at Christmas & Epiphany time with integrity despite all the miraculous stuff about the birth stories.
I felt that Bishop Spong’s message was so clear and uplifting that I would share portions of it with you on this 12th day of Christmas just before we celebrate Epiphany.
He begins…
It was more than two thousand years ago that the historic figure we call Jesus lived.
It was a life of relatively short duration, only thirty-three years.
At most only three of those years were devoted to a public career.
Yet, that life appears to have been a source of wonder and power to those who knew him.
Tales of miraculous power surrounded him.
Words of insight and wisdom were believed to have flowed from his lips.
Love and freedom seemed to be qualities that marked his existence.
Men and women found themselves called into being by him.
Those laden with guilt discovered, somehow, the joy of forgiveness in him.
The alone, the insecure, the warped and twisted found him to be a source of peace.
He possessed the courage to be who he was.
He is described in terms that portray him as an incredibly free man.
Jesus seems to have had no internal needs that drove him to prove himself - no anxieties that centered his attention on himself.
He rather appears to have had an uncanny capacity to give his life away.
He gave love, he gave selfhood, he gave freedom, and he gave them abundantly - wastefully, extravagantly.
Lives touched by his life were never the same.
Somehow life's secret, its very purpose, seemed to be revealed in him.
When people looked at him they were somehow able to see beyond him, and even through him.
They saw in his life the Source of all life that expanded them.
They saw in his love the Source of love and the hope of their own fulfillment.
This kind of transforming power was something they had not known before.
Freedom is always scary.
People seek security in rules that curb freedom.
So his enemies conspired to remove him and his threat to them.
From one perspective it might be said that they killed him.
When one looks more closely at the story, however, it might be more accurate to say that he found in himself the freedom to give his life away and to do so quite deliberately.
He died caring for those who took his life from him.
In that moment he revealed a love that could embrace all the hostilities of human life without allowing those hostilities to compromise his ability to love.
He demonstrated, rather dramatically, that there is nothing a person can do and nothing a person can be that will finally render any of us either, unlovable or unforgivable.
Even when a person destroys the giver of life and love, that person does not cease to be loved by the Source of love or called into life by the Source of life.
That was his message or at least that is what people believed they had met in this Jesus.
Such a life could not help but transcend human limits.
For this kind of love can never be overwhelmed by hatred;
this life can never finally be destroyed by death.
Is it any wonder that people had to break the barriers of language when they sought to make rational sense out of this Jesus experience?
They called him the Son of God.
They said that somehow God was in him.
So deeply did people believe these things that the way they perceived history was changed by him.
To this day we still date the birth of our civilization from the birth of this Jesus.
They believed that he was able to give love and forgiveness, acceptance and courage.
They believed that he had the power to fill life full.
Since people tended to define God as the Source of life and love, they began to say that in this human Jesus they had engaged the holy God.
When they began to write about this transforming experience they confronted a problem.
How could the human mind, which can only think using human vocabulary, stretch far enough to embrace the God presence they had experienced in this life?
How could mere words be big enough to capture this divine meaning?
Inevitably, as they wrote, they lapsed into poetry and imagery.
When this life entered human history, they said, even the heavens rejoiced.
A star appeared in the sky.
A heavenly host of angels sang hosanna.
Judean shepherds came to view him.
Eastern Magi journeyed from the ends of the earth to worship him.
Since they were certain that they had met the presence of God in him, they reasoned that God must have been his father in some unique way.
It was certainly a human reference but that is all we human beings have to use.
Life as we know it, they said, could never have produced what we have found in him.
That is why they created birth traditions capable of accounting for the adult power that they found in him.
Our modern and much less mysterious world reads these birth narratives and, assuming a literalness of human language that the biblical writers never intended, say
"How ridiculous!
How unbelievable!
Things like that just do not happen.
Stars don't suddenly appear in the night to announce a human birth.
Angels do not entertain hillside shepherds with heavenly songs.
Virgins do not conceive.
These things cannot be true."
On one level those criticisms are accurate.
Things like that do not happen in any literal sense.
But does that mean that the experience this ecstatic language was created to communicate was not real?
I do not think so.
The time has come for Christians, when we try to talk about God, to face without being defensive, the inadequacy of human language.
These stories were never meant to be read literally.
They were written by those who had been touched by this Jesus.
That is why they challenge our imaginations and sound so fanciful and unreal.
Our minds are so earthbound that our imaginations have become impoverished.
Literal truth has given way to interpretive images.
When life meets God and finds fulfillment one sees sights never before seen,
one knows joy never before experienced,
and one expects the heavens to sing and dance in celebration.
The story of Christmas, as told by the gospel writers, has a meaning beyond the rational and a truth beyond the scientific.
It points to a reality that no life touched by this Jesus could ever deny.
The beauty of our Christmas story is bigger than our rational minds can embrace.
For when this Jesus is known,
when love, acceptance, and forgiveness are experienced,
when we become whole, free and affirmed people,
the heavens do sing "Glory to God in the Highest," and on earth there is "Peace and Good Will among Us All."
Hence, we Christians rejoice in the transcendent beauty and wonder of this Christmas story.
To those who have never stepped inside this experience, we issue an invitation to come stand where we stand and look through our eyes at this babe of Bethlehem.
Then perhaps they too will join those of us who read these Christmas stories year after year for one purpose only:
to worship the Lord of life who still sets us free and who calls us to live, to love and to be all that we can be.
That is why the Christmas invitation is so simple:
Come, come, let us adore him.
How do we adore him?
In my mind the answer to that query is clear.
I adore him not by becoming religious or by becoming a missionary who seeks to convert the world to my understanding of Jesus.
I do it rather by dedicating my energies to the task of building a world where everyone in this world might have an opportunity to live more fully, love more wastefully and have the courage to be all that they were created to be.
This is the only way I know how to acknowledge the Source of Life, the Source of Love and the Ground of Being that I believe that I have experienced in this Jesus.
How can one adore the Source of Life except by living?
How can one adore the Source of Love except by loving?
How can one adore the Ground of all Being except by having the courage to be all that one can be.
It is not possible to seek these gifts for oneself and then deny them to every other life.
So our task as disciples of Jesus is to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that we can be while we seek to enable every other person, in the infinite variety of our humanity, to live fully, to love wastefully and to be all that each person can be.
That also means that we can hold no prejudice that would hurt or reject another based on any external characteristic, be it race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.
It all seems so simple to me.
God was in Christ.
That is the essence of what I believe about this Jesus.
Have a blessed and holy Christmas & Epiphany Season.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
-- John Shelby Spong 2008.
Edited by Max Ward, 2025.
